HERE is some food for thought, thanks to a new Channel 5 documentary on High Street chain Subway.
Its famous ‘foot-long’ sub rolls are classed as CAKE in some countries, not bread, because they have such high sugar content.
In the show, called Subway: How Do They Do it, a food standards doctor compares Subway’s white roll to a typical baker’s and found it had double the amount of sugar.
Public analyst Duncan Campbell said: “When we look at the sugars, the Subway roll had 5.5g for each 100g and the one from the local baker 2.4g, so twice as much sugar for Subway.
“They’ve both got similar levels of the sugars which is coming out the bread flour in the proving process prior to baking.
“But then in the Subway roll we find sucrose and some glucose as well, so both of those sugars have been added into the product before baking to make the product sweeter.”
Subway agrees that their bread contains sugar, but say it’s 4.5% when consumed – within the EU low sugar claim.
The addition led to a thorny issue in Ireland, where bread is defined as containing less than 2.5% sugar.
A franchisee tried to claim back some of the VAT that had been paid, but the courts said it should be treated in the same way as cake because it contained more than 2.5% of sugar – so not a staple food, but a luxury food.
Subway say it’s a complex VAT case going back nearly two decades and is based on a prior tax law in Ireland.
It’s one of many juicy details in the programme, which airs on Wednesday on Channel 5 at 8pm.
